After a few day's rest from the forum I caught up with some topics tonight! The deviation from the "Ryanair cancellation of flights" topic re landings caught my eye so I've started a new thread on the subject.

I had a discussion about a year ago with an Easyjet pilot on the subject of landing modern planes.I should add that I completed 38 hours of a Private Pilot's licence training some years ago including a number of solo flights. I only stopped on medical advice as I had a tendency towards vertigo.

I asked why pilots did not now "flare" when landing. Flaring is bringing the nose of the aircraft up slightly just before contact of the wheels so that the rear wheels make contact first and therefore the wing angle together with the flaps act as an air brake and the aircraft "floats" to a soft landing.

He said that modern aircraft are not designed to do this. Their training is now to literally "fly" the aircraft into the runway and use the aircraft brakes and reverse thrust to slow the aircraft.

I assume that this is part of the dumbing down of everything nowadays to remove the human element. A computer can fly an airplane straight into the runway as well as a human can. Flaring takes skill!

My experience is that the majority of aircraft flare on landing. Landing is all about stalling the airflow over the wings and this requires flaring. How well it's done is another matter all together and there are a lot of inexperienced pilots out there.

A very good friend of mine is a senior captain with Virgin Atlantic flying A340's. He is ex RAF have done three years with the Red Arrows. He claims never to have had a hard landing, no matter the weather, and says it is wholly down to experience of the pilot flying. He flies here from Gatwick every month with EasyJet and he claims he knows how the landing will be just by the quality of the takeoff and how long it is before the autopilot is engaged. There is a First officer with EasyJet who apparently flies the aircraft to 20,000 feet by hand before letting the computer take over.

I do think you get a better class of insult on this forum.I also thought that a forum was a platform for discussion rather than disparaging remarks. I was only outlining what was said during a discussion with a currently working pilot. If you disagree with what was said, that's fine but there's no need to shoot the messenger.

Hopefully to get back on topic I assume it is about the way Ryanair pilots "drop" the plane onto the runway. I have wondered about this for some time and it is a real delight when I fly with a different airline and have a smooth landing. The last Ryanair flight I took out of Leeds/Bradford they had to change a wheel before takeoff because of a tyre problem. I don't know if the way they land causes more stress on them.

That's interesting, because we use Ryanair a lot and have done for a few years now. We have never had any bad landings with them at all. Maybe we have been lucky. We have flown with other operators like BA, easyJet, Jet2 and Monarch and never found any difference. I suppose a lot depends on the weather at the time of landing.

I guess Ryanair, like other airlines, change the wheels and tyres on a regular basis as part of their normal maintenance. I imagine that most landings give the tyres and wheels a bit of a hammering amyway.

I have used them for years, they fly to and from where I want. I have had a few "heavy" landings in all the years. I remember a heavy thud landing after a long time circling then what seems like a vertical drop going into Edinburgh. Don't like either part of that experience. Part and parcel of flying I think.